H. Harlan Stone, MD

Harry Harlan Stone, MD, passed away on April 7, 2022, at the age of 92. Dr. Stone was a member of the Department of Surgery from 1962-1983, and played a foundational role in building the department's symbiotic relationship with Grady Memorial Hospital as the director of the Grady Burn Unit from 1965-1983, and both Grady Pediatric Surgery and the Grady Trauma Service from 1968-1983.

Welcome our new residents!

Friday, March 18, 2022, was the first in-person Match Day since 2019, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Outside the Emory Student Center, it was a rainy morning replete with thunder. Inside, most attendees wore masks and the match envelopes were spread atop several tables instead of just one, to allow for social distancing when the students surged to the front of the ballroom to learn where they would be beginning their residencies. The energy was infectious. "The students that matched with our program represent some of the best and brightest going into surgery, and we look forward to them joining our team in July," says Mary Ann Garcia-Bowerman, MBA, program administrator for the Emory General Surgery Residency.  

John Sweeney elected first vice-president of SESC

John Sweeney, MD, chair of the Department of Surgery, was elected first vice president of the Southeastern Surgical Congress during its 2022 Annual Meeting. In this position, Dr. Sweeney will assist the president and serve as a member of the SESC Council and Executive Committee, then will serve as president of the SESC for 2024-2025. This is a notable honor, with the lineage of past presidents including such notables of American surgery as former Emory faculty members David Feliciano, Grace Rozycki, and the late Roger Sherman. 

Mandy Ford elected to AST's Board of Directors 

Mandy Ford, PhD, scientific director of the Emory Transplant Center, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society of Transplantation (AST). Dr. Ford is a long standing member of AST, and has served as associate editor of the American Journal of Transplantation, the official publication of AST and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons; chaired AST’s Community of Basic Scientists and its Research Network Committee; and has received the organization's Young Investigator Award, Basic Science Investigator Award, and Basic Science Career Development Award.

Raymond Lynch and Neal Dickert named new associate directors of the Health Services Research Center

The Health Services Research Center, a joint initiative of the departments of medicine and surgery, has announced that transplant surgeon Raymond Lynch, MD, and cardiologist Neal Dickert, MD, PhD, have been named associate directors of the program. They will join founding director Rachel Patzer, PhD, MPH, and the rest of HSRC's leadership team to advance its mission of increasing healthcare access, quality, value, and outcomes for all patients and populations through scientific inquiry and innovative solutions. 

Ravi Rajani named an editor of Annals of Vascular Surgery

Ravi Rajani, MD, assistant dean for education of Emory at Grady, has been appointed to editor of Annals of Vascular Surgery. Published bimonthly, the journal provides solid, peer reviewed coverage of clinical and experimental work in vascular surgery. Dr. Rajani also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Vascular Surgery, Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Annals of Vascular Medicine and Research, and Surgical Research.

Virginia Shaffer selected for membership in the SUS

Virginia O. Shaffer, MD, associate professor of surgery, has been welcomed into the Society of University Surgeons. Membership in the SUS is only given to faculty physicians who have demonstrated scholarly or creative ability that has positively impacted their field, and who have demonstrated success as a surgeon, teacher, and investigator as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications and grant support.

David Vega's honor at Celebrate Life Gala also acknowledges his niece's organ donation 

At the 2022 Celebrate Life Gala fundraiser, sponsored by the Georgia Transplant Foundation (GTF), J. David Vega, MD, was a Celebrate Life Honoree. This distinction was informed by Dr. Vega's record as lead surgeon on hundreds of transplants since his arrival at Emory in 1996, and by his personal, familial connection to the transplant process through his niece Abby Bacho, who was only nine years old when she became an organ donor on Christmas Day of 2012 after a tragic car accident, saving the lives of five people in the process. Abby's parents, Steve and Natalie Bacho, appeared with Dr. Vega at the event.

Steven Roser honored with 2022 ACOMS Humanitarian Award

Steven Roser, DMD, MD, whose commitment to global surgery and addressing healthcare gaps in low resource environments is informed by vast experience and ongoing efforts, has been selected to receive the 2022 Humanitarian Award of the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (ACOMS). He has participated in 35 mission trips and served in numerous organizational roles working to expand and enhance training, education, and research initiatives related to global surgery. Gary Bouloux, MD, DDS, chief of the Emory Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, wrote an announcement in the Winter 2022 ACOMS Review that cogently describes why Dr. Roser is so deserving of the award.

Hakob Davtyan receives Heart of Columbus Award

Hakob (Jacob) G. Davtyan, MD, medical director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Service at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, GA, was recognized as the Heart of Columbus Honoree at the 2022 Greater Columbus Heart and Stroke Ball on April 22nd. Dr. Davtyan led the initiation of the Emory Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery's affiliation with St. Francis Hospital's Cardiac Surgery Service, which greatly expanded the Columbus-based program.

Kudos to the winners of the 2022 William C. Wood Symposium

The 20th Annual William C. Wood Research Symposium showcased the basic and clinical science research of the Emory Department of Surgery's students, residents, and clinical and post-doctoral fellows on April 14th. Brendan Lovasik, MD, and Jessica Keilson, MD, received Best Oral Presentation Awards (first runners up were medical student Alexandra Speak and Kristin Baecher, MD), and Jessica Liu McMullin, MD, and Christina Hartigan, graduate student in immunology, won Best Clinical Poster Awards (Courtney Meyer, MD, and cancer biology and immunology PhD candidate Kelsey Bennion were first runners-up).

Preeti Subhedar and Lauren Postlewait represent Emory at ASBrS meeting

Breast surgical oncologists Preeti D. Subhedar, MD, and Lauren M. Postlewait, MD, were notably acknowledged at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Las Vegas, April 6-10. Dr. Postelwait was co-author of a study selected as one of the best papers of 2021, and Dr. Subhedar presented “Racial considerations in recurrence score interpretation" at the meeting’s inaugural panel session dedicated to mitigating disparities in medicine.

Peter Thompson celebrated on 2022 National Doctor's Day

Peter Thompson, MD, was among the featured honorees for Doctor's Day 2022. The following statements were included in his nomination materials:

• Dr. Thompson cares for his patients like family. He is extraordinarily invested in their treatment and outcomes. His patients have an immense amount of loyalty to him.
• Dr. Thompson provides detail-oriented, thoughtful, evidence-based care of his patients.
• He has spent countless hours working on quality improvement efforts to decrease surgical site infections to benefit all plastic surgery patients.

Deadline approaching: DOS 2022 Pilot Research Award

The deadline to apply for the second cycle of the Department of Surgery’s annual pilot grant funding program is 5:00 pm, April 30, 2022. Applications should be emailed to Tracy Obertone with the subject line: DoS Pilot Grant Application. See the PDF for submission requirements and other details. The goal of this award is to support faculty as they develop a new line of research to further their academic careers, with the ultimate aim of generating preliminary data to support larger grant proposals in the future.

Theresa Gillespie selected for SOM I3 Wow! Research Award  

Theresa W. Gillespie, PhD, MA, BSN, will apply her recently received Imagine, Innovate, and Impact (I3) WOW! Research Award to unifying health disparities research at Emory. WOW! awards aim to promote innovative research with the potential to make a transformational impact in fundamental biomedical knowledge or translational significance.

Felipe Maegawa is first author of a significant study of patient frailty's impact on post-hepatectomy outcomes

In the first study of its kind, published online by HPB, general and hepatopancreatobiliary surgeon Felipe Maegawa, MD, and co-authors from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center found that patient frailty can be a strong predictor of 30-day post-hepatectomy complications, and that incorporating frailty into the established predictive models could improve surgical outcomes. 

Rachel Patzer-helmed study finds national kidney policy change increased some patients' transplant referrals and evaluations

After analyzing data from three southeastern states, a study led by Rachel Patzer, PhD, MPH, found that dialysis facilities referred more newly diagnosed patients and transplant centers evaluated more new patients following initiation of the national kidney allocation system (KAS) in 2014, but fewer of these patients were placed onto the transplant waitlist. Meanwhile, prevalent patients (those who had been on dialysis for multiple years) experienced significantly higher waitlisting rates than pre-KAS levels, but showed no notable increase in referral or evaluation starts.

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